Lecture on Fray Bartolomé de las Casas and 'Colonial Biopolitics'

David Solodkow will give a lecture titled "Colonial Biopolitics: Bartolomé de las Casas and the Farming of Life in the Fields of Death" at 5 p.m. today, Wednesday, Nov. 10, in Kimpel Hall 102. Solodkow will discuss Fray Bartolomé de las Casas' treatise to the Spanish King, his detailed plan to construct a perfect colonial settlement where colonists and natives would live happily and prosperously, as a colonial biopolitical project.

Solodkow is an associate professor of Latin American Literature and the former director of the Center for Research in the School of Arts and Humanities (Universidad de los Andes). His research focuses on colonial literature, race and ethnic representation, national identity formation, biopolitics and cultural studies. His publications include Ficción biopolítica y eugenesia en el Martín Fierro (2015) and Etnógrafos coloniales. Alteridad y escritura en la Conquista de América (2016).

This event is sponsored by the Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies Program, Latin American and Latino Studies Program, Medieval and Renaissance Studies and the Spanish Program. For further information about this event, please contact Luis Fernando Restrepo (lrestr@uark.edu), director of the Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies Program.